Pop art from China at the Gazi complex
Eighty-eight days before the opening of the Beijing Olympics, works by 40 Chinese artists traveled to Athens where they will remain on display for two weeks at Athens’s Technopolis complex. At the old gasworks, strong colors and references to consumption open a window on Chinese pop art, whose development was not allowed by China’s powers at the time. An initial stroll unveils the hybrid (neither Asian nor European) face of a woman. Taken from an advertisement, it is a portrait by Feng Zhengjie – and a reminder of Warhol’s Marilyn. Further down, the blurred, black and white oil works by Li Luming are reminiscent of the work of Gerhard Richter. As for the smiling faces, they carry the artistic signature of the most discussed contemporary Chinese artist, Yue Minjun – much has been said and written about his retrospective show at the Queens Museum of Art in New York. To Western audiences, the artist belongs to an increasingly exciting group of contemporary Chinese artists charting its own course in international auction houses too. Technopolis, 100 Pireos, tel 210.346.0981/7322.
